In a first, Putin calls on Israel

Historic visit

Posted: Thursday, April 28, 2005

By Ravi NessmanAssociated Press

JERUSALEM - Greeted by beaming Israeli officials, Vladimir Putin on Wednesday became the first Kremlin leader to visit the Jewish state, capping a historic rapprochement between two nations that once faced each other as bitter enemies across the Cold War divide.

Putin, on his first Middle East trip, was also hoping to restore his country's profile as a major player in the region and the world, bringing with him a fresh proposal for a conference to be held in Moscow in the autumn.

"Considering the history of relations and the fact that there were times that we were on one side and Russia was entirely on the other side ... (the visit) indicates the significant change that took place between the two countries," Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said as he stood on the airport tarmac waiting to greet Putin.

The Soviet Union supported Israel during the Jewish state's early years, but relations soon deteriorated - and eventually collapsed - as Israel increasingly allied itself with the United States. Moscow cut ties with Israel in 1967 in the context of a Mideast war and strongly backed the Arab states. In many of its wars with its Arab neighbors, Israel found itself facing Soviet-trained pilots flying Soviet MiGs fighter jets.

Moscow also barred Jews from leaving, jailing many who demanded the right to emigrate to Israel.

As the Soviet Union was collapsing in the early 1990s, the two nations restored ties, and Moscow loosened emigration restrictions, prompting more than a million Russian speakers to immigrate here. Natan Sharansky, a Jewish emigration activist who spent nine years in a Soviet jail on an espionage charge, is now Israel's minister for Diaspora affairs. Sharansky and Putin have no plans to meet, according to Israeli and Russian officials.

Relations are continuing to improve under Putin, who took office in 2000, as he tries to push Russia's economic interests abroad and evoke parallels between Israel's conflict with Palestinian militants and Russia's campaign against Chechen rebels.